Welcome to Morning Health Care! It’s the last day of August and the first day back to work in the Brussels bubble. We have Roche fighting back, a controversy over e-cigarettes and some corruption cases in Romania to get you up to speed. Thanks to Elise Bédier and Jules Johnston for help.

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— IN THE NEWS

LINE OF ATTACK. Roche will not appeal against the French government’s decision authorizing the reimbursement of their cancer drug Avastin for an eye condition because it has already attacked its underlying decision, the company told POLITICO. Roche lodged two complaints on August 20 against the move by the French National Drugs and Medicinal Products Agency to temporarily recommend the use of Avastin for the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration. The French health ministry told POLITICO that they have no doubt about the safety of Avastin in treating the disease. “Avastin administered intravitreal to patients with neovascular macular degeneration was tested on several thousand patients,” they said in an email.

As we reported last week, the pharma industry is not happy that European governments have started using drugs off-label to cut costs. They have complained to the European Commission, which has already made a Commission-style move: contract a study “to understand the ramification of the issue” as “the issue of off-label use of medicinal products is complex and deserves consideration.” The work, performed by the Dutch institutes for Health Services Research (NIVEL) and for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), started in April and is still in the early stages.

ROMANIA, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. Bribes and “gifts” to doctors and nurses in Romania are so widespread that the government wants to legalize them, but they do not stop there. Just at the end of last week, the Romanian National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) arrested a hospital manager and a health ministry director for accepting bribes.

Mihaela Ela Udrea, director of the Romanian health ministry unit in charge of drugs and medical devices policy, is accused of receiving money and cosmetics from six people to authorize new pharmacies. Ion-Alexandru Băloi, manager of the county emergency hospital in Ploiești, a city near Bucharest, is accused of taking bribes from one of the hospital suppliers. The bribe represented a fifth of the contract value between the supplier and the hospital, the Romanian Anticorruption Directorate said in a statement. An administrative worker at the county hospital in the Western town of Cluj was also placed under house arrest in June for traffic of influence.

LANCET EDITORIAL BLASTS E-CIG REPORT: An update on the ongoing debate over e-cigarettes: The Lancet in an editorial casts doubt on Public Health England’s “95 percent less harmful” headline estimating the potential less harm compared to traditional smokes. One of the reports on which Public Health England result is based comes from a two- day workshop in 2013, with an expert panel estimated the relative harms of tobacco products. The Lancet calls out the authors for not pointing out the caveats from that paper, including that there was “lack of hard evidence” on the harms of most products and “no formal criterion for the recruitment of the experts.”

The medical journal chastises: “PHE claims that it protects and improves the nation’s health and wellbeing. To do so, it needs to rely on the highest quality evidence. On this occasion, it has fallen short of its mission.” http://bit.ly/1VifJ9a

The PHE authors respond, arguing the editorial cherry picks one of 185 references the study. Read it here: http://bit.ly/1JGcm8l

HURRY TO MARKET. Innovative projects, such as one to protect people from mosquitoes spreading diseases, may reach the market faster with some financial support from Brussels. The European Commission is awarding up to €3 million from its research fund to speed up market access for 16 innovative projects. One focuses on the development of intelligent needle tracking for anesthetics. http://bit.ly/1hky6eG

DRUNK IN TAXES. You can now let the European Commission know if you believe excise duties on alcohol have an impact on sales of counterfeit alcohol and tax fraud. The Commission looks like it is considering some exemptions and “common reduced rates” for small producers or home brewers. It says it also wants to find out from the consultation “whether EU consumers are properly informed about what they are drinking: for instance, whether discount alcohol is more likely to be counterfeit, and as importantly whether it contains harmful chemicals”. http://bit.ly/1NY2FS9

MERS IMPORTS: The ECDC is warning that Middle East respiratory syndrome cases are likely to increase in Europe. “Sporadic imported cases to Europe can be expected,” they said in a rapid risk assessment late last week, citing the Hajj pilgrimage and large numbers of people traveling across borders. They called the increase in August unexpected, linked to one outbreak in a Riyadh hospital. Since first identified in 2012, more than 1,500 cases have been detected in more than 20 countries, including eight countries in Europe. http://bit.ly/1LA9ZDl

EUROPEAN HEART MEETING: Lots of science news came out over the weekend from the European Society of Cardiologists meeting in London, including a report finding longer use of multiple-blood thinners may be beneficial and that women are more likely to die after heard attack treatment. http://reut.rs/1LLy7WB and http://bit.ly/1KV8kFI

EBOLA DEATH IN SIERRA LEONE: Health officials confirmed a death from Ebola, a week after the last known case in the country was able to leave the hospital, starting the 42 day clock needed to be declared free of the virus. The AP has more: http://nyti.ms/1hqBe8Q

— AROUND THE CAPITALS

ITALIAN BAN OK WITH HUMAN RIGHTS: The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday that the rejection of a woman’s wish to donate embryos obtained through an In- Vitro Fertilization to research does not constitute a violation of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Adelina Parrillo had sued the Italian State after the hospital, which carried out the IVF treatment back in 2002, refused to release the embryos claiming that the Italian law banned such research. The court found her allegation that this law violates the convention unfounded. http://bit.ly/1MSCPR5

APPRECIATION: For those who hadn’t heard, British neurologist Oliver Sacks died of terminal cancer over the weekend. The prolific writer wrote essays on medicine and may be most famous for his book, Awakenings, which included a trademark of his writing: humanizing patients. Tributes from many came in for Sacks, who was educated in Britain but spent most of his life in New York. Read some of the here: http://bbc.in/1IvDLnX, and here: http://nyti.ms/1Q1peqy

DOCS ON GREECE: COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT: Assessment of the Social Impact of the new Stability Support Program for Greece, including information on health. http://bit.ly/1KVn5Ik

— COMING THIS WEEK

September 1: Welcome back, EU officials! Also new DG SANTE chief Xavier Prats Monné starts his new job. Read more about him here: http://politi.co/1GyFcSa

The European Parliament’s agriculture committee is also voting on its opinion on a European Commission proposal to let each EU country decide whether to allow the use of GMO food and feed products on their territory.